Reinforcements on the Way for Red Sox: Victor Martinez Activated
The injury-plagued season of the Boston Red Sox may finally be in a healing process. Last week, Clay Buchholz and Josh Beckett both made their returns to the line-up and catcher Victor Martinez is now back to help the Sox climb back in the pennant race.
Martinez normally bats in the heart of the batting order, but in his first game back against the Los Angeles Angels, he batted sixth. Manager Terry Francona said that his catcher won’t be batting sixth for very long though.
Martinez’s return to the lineup was successful as he hit an RBI single his first time up against right-hander Dan Haren, who was making his Angels debut.
The catcher was placed on the disabled list last month with a fractured thumb. The team has slumped since. On June 28th, at the time of his injury, the Red Sox were in second place in the AL East, two games behind the New York Yankees. In Martinez’s absence, the Sox went 9-13 and slipped down to third place, eight games behind the Yankees.
The slump is not only attributed to this injury. The Sox also lost Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz and even Jason Varitek during the 22 games Martinez sat. The team lost both of their big-league catchers and suffered from it.
Perhaps where the Sox suffered the most from Martinez’s injury was the power of his bat. The four catchers who played in place of Martinez clearly didn’t provide any spark at the plate. Those catchers were Varitek, Kevin Cash, Gustavo Molina, and Dusty Brown. While Varitek can’t be blamed, as he only played in two games, hitting two RBIs, the four combined for a .162 batting average (12-for-74) as both RBIs belonged to Varitek.
Brown has now been sent down to Pawtucket to make room for Martinez.
"He certainly won't be hitting sixth very long," Francona said, of his return. "It wasn't fair to stick him in third or fourth until he gets some games under his belt."
In Martinez’s first game back, the Red Sox defeated the LA Angels 6-3.
Martinez has taken extra precaution with his thumb. His glove has been fitted with some special padding to prevent him from aggravating the injury. The switch-hitter also mentioned that the thumb was bothering him when swinging from his right side, but that won’t be a problem in the next few days. He will be facing mostly right-handers in the upcoming days, so he’ll be able to bat from the left.
"I'm just excited," Martinez said. "It's not fun to watch the game from the bench."
As Martinez makes his gradual return to the Red Sox full starting line-up, the team is still waiting for their all-star second baseman Dustin Pedroia to make his return to the line-up. However, Pedroia is not expected back until mid-August.
Boston needs to turn things around fast as they have slipped in the pennant race in July. Injuries are a main part of that and they need their injured stars back as quickly as possible. Fans have implored the team to make a trade or two at the deadline to address the injury issues and add some power to the roster.
So far, the Red Sox have been quiet in the mix, patiently waiting for their stars to make their returns and help the team recover from a slumping July. The team has a tough division to contend with and would probably still be leading their division somewhere else, but the fact is, they are where they are and to compete with the Yankees and the Rays, you need all the weapons you have.
Tags: